Evaluation of quality of life and risk factors affecting quality of life in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common disease leading to spinal deformity in children ages 10 and over. With advances in the study of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), greater attention has been given to the quality of life (QoL) of patients with AIS and their perception of deformity instead of just focusing on improving the rate of surgical correction. This article provides an overview of the methods of evaluating HRQoL and it analyzes several main factors affecting QoL, such as severity of disease, method of treatment, gender, and social environment, based on previous studies of patients with AIS. The authors believe that radiological studies should no longer be taken as the only indicator of postoperative therapeutic evaluation and hope to build a new evaluation system with assessment of QoL for patients with AIS.